A day after members of two communities clashed in Agra, the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh Monday said it was only a "minor skirmish" and should not be seen as communal violence.
"Who says it was a communal riot? It was only a minor skirmish in a locality," SP leader Amar Singh said at a press conference in New Delhi when asked about the clash between Hindu shopkeepers and Muslim residents in the city of the Taj.
To a question about communal violence in Mau, he said all those who were guilty would be brought to book.
Asked why independent legislator Mukhtar Ansari, already booked in the case, was yet to be arrested, Singh said, "He will also not be left."
When reporters pointed out that Ansari was giving television interviews almost every day even though the police were unable to trace him, Singh said, "Even Veerapan gave interviews to television."
In a lighter vein, he added, "I request the TV channels that whenever they go to take Ansari's interview, they should inform us so that we can arrest him."
Singh said Ansari had never been a member of the Samajwadi Party. "He supported the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government earlier and now supports the SP."